To provide wireless connectivity and communication between devices in wireless networks/systems (e.g., wireless PAN (personal area network), a wireless LAN (local area network), a wireless WAN (wide area network), a cellular network, etc.), it is necessary to equip such devices with antennas. For example, a WLAN may operate under the known “Bluetooth” standard to provide wireless network connectivity between devices such as a portable laptop computers, servers, printers, keyboards, modems, etc., wherein the devices include antennas to send and receive data via radio frequency (RF) communications.
With portable laptop computers, an antenna may be located either external to the device or integrated within the device. For example, FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various embodiments for providing external antennas for a laptop computer. As depicted in FIG. 1, an antenna (10) can be located at the top of a display unit (13) of a laptop computer (14). Alternatively, an antenna (11) can be located on a PC card (12). The laptop computer (14) can provide optimum wireless connection performance when the antenna (10) is mounted on the top of the display due to the very good RF (radio frequency) clearance. There are disadvantages, however, associated with laptop designs with external antennas including, for example, high manufacture costs, possible reduction of the strength of the antenna (e.g., for a PC card antenna (12)), susceptibility of damage, and the effects on the appearance of the laptop due to the antenna.
Other conventional laptop antenna designs include embedded designs wherein one or more antennas are disposed within a laptop. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates conventional antenna implementations, wherein one or more antennas (20, 21, 22) (e.g., whip-like or slot embedded antenna) are formed in a display unit (23) of a laptop computer (24). In one conventional embodiment, two antennas are typically used (although applications implementing one antenna are possible) (e.g., two antennas (20, 21) can be placed on the left and right edges of the display), to reduce the blockage caused by the display in some directions and provide space diversity to the wireless communication system. In another conventional configuration, one antenna (20 or 21) is disposed on one side of the display and a second antenna (22) is disposed in an upper portion of the display. This antenna configuration may also provide antenna polarization diversity depending on the antenna design used.
Although embedded antenna designs can overcome some of the above-mentioned disadvantages associated with external antenna designs (e.g., less susceptible to damage), embedded antenna designs typically do not perform as well as external antennas. Another disadvantage associated with embedded antenna designs is that the size of the laptop must be increased to accommodate antenna placement, especially when two or more antennas are used (as shown in FIG. 2).